LA Sparks defeat Indiana Fever on Tamika Catchings' big night

Retired Indiana Fever great Tamika Catchings, is being honored with a jersey retirement ceremony during the evening's Indiana Fever game, Saturday, June 24, 2017.
Robert Scheer/IndyStar

Retired Indiana Fever great Tamika Catchings is surrounded by current players as she is being honored with a jersey retirement ceremony during the evening's Indiana Fever game, Indianapolis, Saturday, June 24, 2017.(Photo11: Robert Scheer/IndyStar)

On a night celebrating the Fever icon’s legendary career with the retirement of her No. 24 jersey, the Sparks dealt Indiana an 84-73 loss thanks to a high-powered run midway through the game.

Indiana led by as many as eight in the first quarter, but the Sparks reeled off a 25-1 run during the second and third quarters. They scored the first 19 points of the second half and led by as many as 25 midway through the third.

Candice Dupree led the Fever with 14 points, including 10 in the first quarter. She continues to be an offensive force for Indiana. This marked the seventh straight game in which she scored double-figure points. Shenise Johnson (13), Briann January (13) and Erica Wheeler (12) all scored in double-figures for the Fever.

The loss spoiled a chance for the Fever’s first three-game winning streak of the season. Los Angeles have won five straight games.

WNBA President Lisa Borders spoke with the media prior to the game on a number of topics:

Borders said the league “will expand at some point,” but that she wants to make sure all of the teams are stable in their markets before doing so.

Borders spoke about the importance of social media to the league’s increased presence, citing the importance of Twitter live streams and the league’s newly announced partnership with Fan Duel. "Twitter skews younger ... (live streaming) brings a new pool of fans."

Borders also said the league will continue to work on marketing its players as individuals, emphasizing their personalities and interests. “We’re looking for fans that can’t spell basketball. They might want to follow our players because they have a pet or a plant. It doesn’t matter to me. We’re just looking for the fans. We’re looking for people that relate. The only way you can find those touch points is to develop the players’ personalities. Every one of them has one.”

Borders said the league’s new playoff system was viewed as a success. “It was one of the most exciting final series we have had. (But) that was one data point. You need two or three data points to say this is a trend and that this is exciting and be sustained. We’re repeating this format so we can really understand if we’ve got a trend on our hand. The players seem to love it. The messages we got back was that fans appreciated the format and want to see us do it again.”